


I Wouldn’t Go To Tokyo Without You

by xziris



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: ? I think, Falling In Love, First Kiss, First work so perhaps a lil ooc sorry );, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Rarepair superiority
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:56:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26303068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xziris/pseuds/xziris
Summary: Ennoshita and Asahi continue the same conversation across a long period of time, the conversation of running away.
Relationships: Azumane Asahi/Ennoshita Chikara
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	I Wouldn’t Go To Tokyo Without You

Low heat exploded through the air like a fountain, caressing their skin as the night persisted. Through the clouds above, they could make out two, maybe three, constellations of which their fingers traced every so often. Below them, their town was practically stagnant. Only the occasional late walker returning from work at this hour. Below them, the unnoticeable rustle of a hedge was the only thing they could hear.

Perhaps, Asahi considered as he took a drink of his soda, perhaps this was a weird pairing to meet up. Sat on the Azumane house’s roof at twilight, drinking flat fizzy pop, taking in the night bathed scenery. Only a week ago had they stared talking outside of the usual exchange of ‘how are you doing?’, ‘I’m doing fine, you?’, ‘I’m fine, too.’ to talk about the complexities of their feelings as if they’d been childhood friends.

Not strangers, not friends. For now, what Ennoshita was to Asahi remained foggy. He was too distant for a friendship between them, too new, and thought too hard about what he wanted to say. Asahi could see the way he spoke to the other second years, how much more at home he looked, wondered slightly if that could be the future of this arrangement. He didn’t know particularly what he wanted off of Ennoshita. For those reasons, he couldn’t be called a stranger.

They took a simultaneous swig in the silence, Ennoshita broke it with his steady laugh. They clinked their cans together.

“To us, the queers on the volleyball team,” Ennoshita said, quiet enough for only Asahi to hear him. It was not as though anybody around them was awake at this time.

“You’re not going to tell anyone, right?” Asahi sounded more nervous than he intended to be.

“Of course not,” Ennoshita whispered, so softly that Asahi’s shoulder’s relaxed.

Finding out had been an awkward experience. After the fact, Ennoshita simply explained he had an excellently tuned gaydar, but Asahi was less certain on that. All it took was a glimpse too long at Daichi, who he had to admit he had a small crush on, for Ennoshita to notice. In the moment of confrontation, in the empty club room after training, Asahi couldn’t say no. The look on Ennoshita’s face, so desperate to have someone to relate to on this level, was something that contorted his better judgement.

Though, it felt nice to say it aloud. Nice to tell someone who he was without fear of any harm. Ennoshita had made it clear, from his actions to the small tears in his eyes, that he was just like Asahi. Their hug was strange, but needed, two people who before that moment knew nothing but surface level information about the other.

Something had formed between them. Based on the mutual experience, the gays in the sports team. It was groundwork, Asahi found he was more intrigued about Ennoshita’s life now that they had evolved their conversations. But Ennoshita was a closed book. While Asahi’s complications were written on his skin for anyone to solve, Ennoshita had tattooed over his clues with a very messy stick and poke.

“I think I’ll run away before I have to tell anyone,” Ennoshita said, “avoid confrontation. I don’t think my brothers would mind, or- or my sister. But just to get out of here, new start.”

“Oh. I mean, um. It’s a plan,” Asahi said with a small stammer, “where... where would you go?”

“Tokyo, or something. Somewhere obvious where they wouldn’t think to look.”

“I wouldn’t mind that either, honestly.”

They faced each other with two smiles, one broad, one awkward. Their cans met each other again, with the rest of the night taking on a comfortable lull.

——

Rain splattered against the windows. A harsh, wet contrast to the night on the roof just a week ago. It remained on Asahi’s mind in the moments where his thoughts became too idle, his hands absentmindedly fiddling with the damaged hem of his shirts. Outside was harsh, so the team dillydallied while clearing away the equipment. Gathered in the gym with the exceedingly long wait for the weather to subdue.

Hinata and Kageyama were begging Daichi for extra training, but he kept saying something along the lines of them needing more rest than they were getting. Tsukishima was nearby, of course, picking at them with snide comments and witty remarks. Yamaguchi was practically giggling, but Asahi thought it was more at whatever Tanaka and Nishinoya were up to. Wrestling? Play fighting? Sugawara was trying to break them up, and if it wasn’t Ennoshita doing that then...

Asahi found him by the door, not with Kinoshita or Narita. They were actually tidying up, but one of them must have said something to make the other laugh. Sat with his head tilted to the side, admiring his nails. Ennoshita looked too pensive to be worried about the rain, something about the aura he emitted. Asahi knew the feeling all too well, tried to think how he would like to be approached in this situation.

Honestly, he wouldn’t. But Ennoshita wasn’t Asahi, Ennoshita was a people’s person. Or at least that’s what he gathered about him. Ennoshita liked conversation, as long as he wasn’t the subject of it.

“Hey,” Asahi said as he sat down beside Ennoshita.

“Hello, Asahi-san.”

They sat without saying a word, watching the scenes before them play out. Ukai finally realised that the second years were fighting each other, after a long and deep conversation with Takeda. Beside Asahi, Ennoshita suppressed a laugh at him shouting at the troublemakers. He even scolded Hinata and Kageyama for bothering their captain. Asahi just sighed, thanked his blessings that he wasn’t at the receiving end, and turned to face his companion.

Ennoshita was slumped, slightly. His face especially. He looked so lost in thought, more so than he’d seen someone. Asahi didn’t want to make him uncomfortable by asking, perhaps Ennoshita didn’t want to talk about it. Maybe it was something that Asahi felt daily, a suffocating anxiety that he just wanted to ignore without any success.

During those times, he distracted himself. Either with volleyball or one of his other small hobbies.

“What would you do?” Asahi’s question was met with Ennoshita finally facing him, with confusion etched into his features. “You know, um, in Tokyo?”

Ennoshita‘s face eased into a smile and said, “I don’t know. I think my parents want me to look into physiotherapy.”

“That’s... I’m sorry, but that’s a little...”

“Random? I know. But apparently it combines my two interests, which are supposedly sports and science. No idea where they got science from, though.”

The question was on the tip of his tongue, bubbling over to his lips. Asahi wanted to ask it, to get to know him. His nearly-friend. His teammate. Ennoshita looked much less in his own mind than he did seconds ago, so perhaps he wouldn’t mind if he asked. Oh, but what if he did? What if Asahi asked it, and Ennoshita couldn’t even answer him? What if Ennoshita’s interests were illegal? What if-

“What about you, Asahi-san? If you ran away to Tokyo?”

“Oh, uh- I think I’d like to- I mean, um.” Asahi took a deep breath to steady himself before saying: “I don’t know, if I’m being honest.”

Ennoshita nodded.

“There isn’t anything you enjoy, out of volleyball?”

“I mean, I sew...”

Then and there, a bright light burned in Ennoshita’s eyes. It took Asahi aback, and unsuspected heat crawled up to his cheeks. He looked enamoured, recomposing himself before spit firing questions about sewing. Asahi, of course, was happy to answer. Happy to talk until the rain died down, with Ennoshita listening intently. The intensity that shone in his irises never once left.

Asahi forgot to ask what Ennoshita’s interests actually were.

——

Midday sun tried to penetrate the leaves above them to no avail. Their meeting place this time was one near Ennoshita’s home, atop a hill where nobody ever seemed to go. Asahi tried not to catch himself fixated about the urban legend surrounding the area, the one Ennoshita was so hesitant to tell him about. Still, every small creak from around them made his hairs stand on end. They sat on their jackets, not too far apart, but the distance made Asahi feel millions of meters away. It was as if he was an entirely different country. He couldn’t place why he yearned for the gap to close. 

Asahi had listened to Ennoshita’s request, even if it had been about two weeks since he made it. In the messenger bag he carried wherever he went, he had carefully brought along files full of scribbles and magazine clippings. If he had any time between practice, studying, and drawing them; he would organise it to be a portfolio. His older sister was a model, she was sure to help him. She knew what to do.

Ennoshita’s delicately long fingers ran across a particularly messily sketched shirt. It reached the disproportioned model’s knees, which was entirely unintentional. Asahi simply wasn’t good at drawing people, barely decent at putting his ideas to paper. The pattern he intended to create it out of was absolutely hideous, he had a square of the fabric pinned to the sheet. He stayed admiring this piece for a long time.

Asahi cleared his throat, beginning to worry that Ennoshita found his designs boring. Instead, Ennoshita looked up with a triumphant smile on his lips.

“I knew it was more than just sewing,” Ennoshita said with unfaltering boldness, “I knew it was more...”

It took a minute of blinking himself back into the present for Asahi to fully register those words. Something about them worked away in the back of his mind, squeezing it’s way between the night on the roof and the day they formed this relationship of theirs. Anyone being so passionate about finding out what exactly Asahi loved was so foreign that Asahi grew a tad suspicious of his nearly-friend.

He’d moved on to another design, one for Asahi’s other sister. A long flowing dress made of baby blue silk. Ennoshita’s smile grew as Asahi saw his eyes reread the words ‘for Hina’ over and over. He looked as though he wanted to say something, but he gently moved on to another piece. It was one of Asahi’s favourites, a full on outfit that he intended to make for himself. A mix between the hard style he couldn’t pull off and a history teacher. He hoped it looked contemporary enough to pull off.

“You know, this stuff has a place in Tokyo. You could easily find work,” Ennoshita said, holding up a sketch that Asahi couldn’t see from his angle. Asahi bit his lip.

“I don’t know if I could make it.”

“I understand.”

Asahi wanted to say something to stop the slight twitch in Ennoshita’s smile, to erase the feeling of being punched in the gut it gave him. What could he possibly say? How could he fix something he wasn’t entirely sure he knew was there to break? After a minute of composing himself, he said it.

“I’m not running away from something I love again.”

Ennoshita’s bad energy left within seconds, only to be replaced by the pondering look that Asahi had become familiarised with. His heart started to patter, begging that he hadn’t done something wrong.

“I admire that, Asahi-san.”

——

His hands were incredibly tired when he finished. It had taken him an hour or two longer than he expected, but Asahi was pleased with the outcome. He carefully folded it, wrapped it in the least childish wrapping paper he could find left over in his house, and attached the sticky label onto the package. 

It was hard to work with ‘I admire that, Asahi-san’ being the only thought he had. How it made flowers practically bloom from his chest, pollen attacking his tear ducts. A beautiful phrase, summer air and freshly watered orchids. A beautiful phrase from an honest boy, a boy with honey dusted lips and a way of weaving his words into a harmonious vine.

Asahi stared at it for a few minutes before settling on putting it aside and going to bed. His face was flush from his own imagination running wild. He sincerely hoped he liked it.

——

As the sun rose outside the bus, Asahi’s fingers dug into his shorts. The whole vehicle rumbled down the road, not waking any one of the snoring boys within it. Nishinoya was fast asleep on his shoulder, getting drool on his shirt, but he didn’t mind. Tanaka sat by himself by the window a few seats down, separated by a very frustrated coach after an hour of non stop shouting. They weren’t even far from each other.

In front of them, Kinoshita was muttering in his sleep. Asahi could pick out something about his aunt who had become infamous among the team for her tendencies to ship Kinoshita off to practice with strange, unheard of sweets and treats. Something outrageous must have happened, his sharp gasp made Asahi jump a little. Nishinoya didn’t even stir.

By his feet, Asahi’s bag was screaming at him to do it now. Before he had to explain to everyone why he was sneaking out with Ennoshita in the dead of night. If he was sleeping, then he wouldn’t. But Asahi knew Ennoshita well enough by now, his friend wouldn’t be thinking about falling asleep. Right now, he was just a pillow for Kinoshita as Asahi was one for Nishinoya.

Slowly, as to not disturb anything, he reached down to pull it to his lap. He waited for anyone to notice the shuffling, almost expected Ennoshita to turn around with a curiously raised eyebrow. With his shaking hands, he pulled out the gift, and reached over to tap Ennoshita’s shoulder.

“Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, I um, I wanted wanted to give this to you... uh, I don’t want to explain to the team if they caught us sneaking out.”

Ennoshita’s face appeared in the crack, his head craning to look at Asahi clearer. His stomach filled with butterflies as he tried to hand it over. His arm was so heavy, resisting giving it to it’s intended recipient. Eventually, it was held out in the aisle of the bus for Ennoshita to grab. He readjusted himself to take it.

Asahi was jittery with anticipation, waiting for those fragile hands to open the present. He wasn’t sure if Ennoshita had or not until he heard the slow sigh. He tried to scramble for whether or not that was a good reaction or not, his mind already running loops over himself until Ennoshita broke him out of it in a simple way.

“Tokyo won’t know what hit it.”

——

As their last night at Shinzen neared to a high moon overhead, Ennoshita and Asahi were sitting in an empty classroom away from the other students. It was supposed to be just Asahi, hiding away from boisterous teens spending their last night in such close comfort. Half of the Karasuno team had convinced Fukurodani’s ace, Bokuto, that Asahi wanted a two on two match to vie for the title of strongest ace. He heard a loud call of ‘grab a setter and let’s go, pretty boy’ before he shoved himself in the closest room.

Every now and again, Daichi or Sugawara would walk by calling his name through a fit of laughter at the whole situation. They found it hilarious. Maybe it was, Asahi thought as he pulled his knees up to his chest. Once the tightness in his throat dislodged, he could laugh along with the other third years at his cowardice. Or perhaps not, as he heard Bokuto call down the hallway in an apparent refusal of giving up.

“Hey,” Ennoshita had said when he opened the door to the classroom, “I told Tanaka I saw you in the other side of the building. That should keep them preoccupied.”

Ennoshita didn’t look as though he found it funny. He had looked bored, really. Asahi appreciated it.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what? You’re allowed to be scared.”

“But it’s just volleyball-“

“It’s an angry eighteen year old with more air in his head than his lungs.”

That gave Asahi a laugh. Ennoshita deemed this as welcoming him to come closer, which Asahi wouldn’t ever say no to.

“How’d you know I was here?”

“Lucky guess,” Ennoshita said but then looked away, “I checked most of the rooms on this floor. Daichi-san said he saw you.”

So then they sat, with no words once again. Along the way, Ennoshita dug his phone out from his trouser pocket to play some music. Asahi had predicted Ennoshita’s taste a while ago, so wasn’t surprised when the low indie tunes met his ears. Distantly, Asahi recognised the voice. Temptation to ask Ennoshita who the artist was ran through his head until he turned to face his friend.

Ennoshita’s eyes were shut, his lips mouthing along to the words. Washing over Asahi was the realisation of the singer, his eyes staring at the phone on the ground. Sure enough, what was playing was a recording rather than a downloaded song. A piece of a soul, handed to him on a silver platter.

“Wow,” was all Asahi could say.

“Thanks. You were right, you know. About not running away from what you love.”

“Tokyo’s got a big storm coming, hasn’t it?”

They both laughed. Pink collected on the tip of Ennoshita’s nose and his cheeks. The way his eyes crinkled, how his hands covered his smile. They locked eyes, flush swam through Asahi’s face, and they both looked away.

——

On a silver evening before the preliminaries, the team had decided on going out for a meal together. Which was all fine and well, Asahi didn’t mind going out when it was with them, so dressed in the outfit he’d recently gotten round to making. The almost punk-history teacher one. It looked rigid on his shoulders.

He met up with Narita and Kageyama on the way there, accidentally. Their route was just similar, their houses close together. None of them attempted to make small talk, but walking apart was more awkward than walking together. At least they hadn’t far to go before they found the spot they were supposed to meet the others.

Daichi and Ennoshita, who practically lived next door to each other, had arrived first. Daichi looked nice dressed up, but Asahi’s heart stopped when he saw Ennoshita. Knee length shirt with a horrendous pattern, it suited him. Surprisingly well. The shorts he wore should not have worked, but they did. On Ennoshita, it looked fantastic.

Something bubbled in Asahi’s veins. He paid no attention to what.

——

“You know, I think I’ll do the physiotherapy thing.”

“Yeah?”

“I’ll busk on the side, or something.”

“Whatever makes you happy.”

——

On the night of a full moon, Asahi laid awake. His hands yearned for something to hold, someone to hold. Every time he closed his eyes, he could see their hands together, walking down the streets, both not as nervous when they’re together. Asahi could see the sun hitting his hair, the slight yellowness of his teeth, the scrunch of his nose as he smiled with all his might.

Asahi could see himself with Ennoshita. He could see them interlaced, see them being so bad at flirting that they resort to speaking as though they’d been married for six years. Asahi didn’t know if this was a crush, it was never like this with Daichi, or the boy in first year, or anyone. A crush... after what felt like no time at all.

He sighed into the night. He could’ve sworn he was a goner.

——

“I’d like an apartment where I can get a cat.”

“I would’ve taken you for a dog person, honestly.”

“Nah, what about you?”

“I would really like a cat, um, but I don’t know-“

“Oh, we could live together then. Save money.”

——

Over soft hazy days where Ennoshita began to laugh more meaningfully and actually humour conversations when asked about his life outside of volleyball, Asahi realised that in fact, yes. He was a goner.

——

Heavy clouds passed by on a darkened evening, the artificial light from Asahi’s lamp illuminated the room. Their voices were hushed, the space in his room a little too small for them to fit comfortably. Ennoshita had spilt his dinner on his shirt, so Asahi graciously lended him one of his. It made Asahi’s heart flutter whenever he so much as glanced at Ennoshita. 

They were absentmindedly chatting about whatever was on the other’s mind, no real solid conversation. Ennoshita was playing with some thread he’d found on Asahi’s desk, concerning him when he found that one of the only knots he knew was a noose. Following that was a playful argument over hanging the flexible wooden man Asahi used to model his sketches, whose proper name evaded him, by the door handle.

“You’re so weird, Ennoshita,” Asahi whined, grabbing the thread off of him. Ennoshita coughed to disguise a laugh, and just leaned against the wall that supported their backs.

“No I’m not. And uh... you can call me Chikara if you’d like, Asahi-san.”

“Chikara,” Asahi repeated the name, “then it’s just Asahi.”

“Well, just Asahi,” Chikara’s voice was full of a smile when he spoke, “I forgot to thank you for the shirt you made me.”

“You don’t have to thank me. Chikara.”

“No, I want to. Thank you, for the shirt.”

They looked at each other, both faces red as beetroots in the dimness of a dying lightbulb. Their names were so otherworldly on each other’s lips but at the same time so right. Asahi wanted to say something, could feel it on his tongue. The last time he didn’t say what he wanted to Chikara, it took so many weeks and a panic attack to figure it out on his own. Not that Asahi was one to step up, to be brave, to be strong.

But when Chikara looked at him, he wanted to be.

“I... um. I just wanted to say sorry, for. For um... never saying I’d run away with you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Every time you talk about Tokyo. I um... I never said I’d do it.”

Chikara deflated, the small smile seemed to shrink into a frown. Asahi could feel his nerves from here, sure Chikara could feel his own. Come on. Save it.

“I just want you to know that... that, I would. I would run away with you, Chikara,” Asahi said with the small space between them closing, “I would go anywhere with you, I would. Um. I mean...”

“You don’t need to defend yourself. I would run away with you, too,” Chikara said as their foreheads met and his hand found Asahi’s chest, “I really, really would run away with you.”

In all senses of the word, it was disgusting. Asahi’s lips were too wet, Chikara’s were too dry. It tasted heavily of barely mint toothpaste, an unpleasant sensation at best. Asahi’s stubble must’ve been irritating Chikara’s face, his nails dug into Asahi’s chest a bit too much. When Chikara began gasping for breath, the sting of salty tears mixed in. In all senses of the word, it was perfect.

——

As the coldness in their bones echoed as dragon’s breath, the warmth in their hands made up for the tips of their ears freezing over. Linked together, keeping each other steady. The last ones out of the club room, the decision still not final.

“Are you sure you want to tell them?” Asahi asked.

“Well,” Chikara said with a wry smile, “it was your idea.”

They squeezed their hands tighter together, and started their way to the gym. Chikara put on what Asahi assumed he believed was a reassuring grin, and Asahi flashed one right back. It was probably as nerve-wracked as Chikara’s.

Sooner than he would’ve hoped, the doors were upon them. They took a moment to steady themselves, before walking into the vast expanse of the gymnasium. Waiting for anyone to pick up on it, anyone at all.

Of course, it was the ever nosey Sugawara who made the first cheer, nudging Daichi and pointing at them. Asahi flinched for the swam of insults that never came. Instead, Daichi just told them to get warmed up, opposite ends of the court if it’s going to be distracting for them. Chikara rolled his eyes, clicked his tongue, but left to go to stretch with the second years.

“Before you ask,” Chikara called over his shoulder, “yes, it’s because you’re distracting.”

“Oh, that’s sweet. Come on, Asahi,” Sugawara said with his devilish grin, motioning him over. He tried to say something else, but Daichi took that motion away when he pointed out how his current form wasn’t right. He corrected himself and the chatter fell into their usual comfortable banter.

It turns out that they had nothing to run away from in the first place.

**Author's Note:**

> Omg this is my first HQ!! fic so sorry if it’s ooc! I just love them. (‘:


End file.
